Daily Times

For the first time, after more than 14 years, the leading military commanders from both India and Pakistan have met face to face at the Wagah border post near Lahore. The Director Generals Military Operations (DGMOs) of both countries — Major General Aamer Riaz from Pakistan and Lieutenant General Vinod Bhatia from India — decided to come together to resolve their multitude of differences, especially since the last few months have been particularly tense because of skirmishes on the Line of Control (LoC) between the two countries. Since January 2013, border clashes have resulted in the deaths of numerous soldiers on both sides. The military high commands have agreed to cooperate and set up more effective mechanisms of communication including making better contact on the special hotline, which exists between the militaries of both countries, and have vowed to maintain the ceasefire along the LoC. This kind of resolve is a very positive step.

India and Pakistan can ill afford bad ties or even the slightest hint of tension, let alone the fact that their militaries are eyeball to eyeball along the LoC. Both are nuclear-armed countries and both have had a history marred with suspicion, distrust, threats and wars. Our Kargil misadventure back in 1999, led to an almost total cut off of contact between the armies of both countries. On the side of the civilian dispensation, the Mumbai attacks in 2008, which killed some 166 people, led to a numbing of all dialogue between the governments on both sides. Hence, for a while India and Pakistan were almost quarantined from one another. That the all powerful institution of the military is meeting and coordinating efforts to prevent any unfortunate incident is hopeful indeed. Any skirmish, attack, encounter or terrorist outburst — as was witnessed in 2008 — could have the potential of making someone on either side very trigger happy. This cannot be allowed.The important thing to grasp is that no government move towards negotiations or peace talks will have any effect if the armies of both countries are not on the same page. The civilian domains in both India and Pakistan are making headway in the progression of dialogue and bringing suspicions to a minimum. Pakistan’s premier, Mr Nawaz Sharif, has been harping on liberalising trade with our neighbouring country and opening the border. With all these big dreams under discussion, it would indeed be a shame to see such efforts wasted if the big guns in the military domain are not seeing eye to eye.

On another note, this is also the first major outing by the army since the change of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) last month. This will definitely be seen as the first progressive step made by the new COAS, General Raheel Sharif. However, it must be kept in mind that General Sharif may have helped carry out this meeting but since the LoC has been unstable since January, efforts have been made since then to bring the militaries to some sort of truce. It can only be hoped that the grand targets set by the army commanders will be met instead of living in a state of constant aggression. *